Ignacy Paderewski Battles the Midway Camel

Twenty-two-year-old Ignacy Jan Paderewski (November 18, 1860 – June 29, 1941) was already a rock star when he performed a concert for the opening of the 1893 World’s Fair. The Polish pianist’s adoring fans—enchanted as much by his luxuriant red locks as by his charismatic keyboard performance—succumbed to “Paddymania.” His distinguishing coiffure made Paderewski a common subject of caricatures and cartoons. One example places him back at the World’s Columbian Exposition, where one denizen of the Midway Plaisance was [...]

By |2024-11-05T10:07:15-06:00November 18th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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169. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Beauty Show

THE BEAUTY SHOW—What bore upon its front the legend, "International Dress and Costume Exhibit, or World's Congress of Beauties," was a large rectangular structure seen upon the right soon after entering the Midway Plaisance from the Exposition grounds. Further information regarding the attractions within was conveyed in an additional notice to the effect that "Forty Ladies from Forty Nations" were there on exhibition. The interior consisted chiefly of a great hall, surrounded on three sides by a raised and [...]

By |2024-11-15T10:45:00-06:00November 9th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS, Uncategorized|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Tale of a Canceled Pass at the 1893 World’s Fair

From the September 30, 1893, issue of Boot and Shoe Recorder comes this verse about whiskers, an entrance pass, and love on the World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. An 1893 patent fot a farm lifting gate. TALE OF A CANCELED PASS I. Cervantes Burton was patentee Of a lifting gate called the “A. B. C.” “It is built in such a simple way That a child can work it,” he would say. Mr. Burton had shown this wondrous [...]

By |2024-11-05T18:15:11-06:00November 8th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|0 Comments
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1893 World’s Fair buildings were “a counterfeit and a sham”

The excerpt below comes from a profile of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition published in the Pittsburg Dispatch in the summer of 1891, near the start of construction on the fairgrounds. The writer questions the use of staff as the main material for the facades of buildings. At this time, the decision had to yet been made to have all the buildings in the Court of Honor painted white. A bird’s eye view of the proposed fairgrounds of the [...]

By |2024-10-22T14:30:49-05:00October 23rd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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168. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Marine Cafe

THE MARINE CAFE.—The Café, built in an attractive semi-Gothic style, located just at the beginning of the east side of the strait, connecting the lagoons with the north pond was most attractive in appearance, while occupying a convenient situation for those who would eat. Naturally, the Marine Café became one of the popular institutions of the Fair. The building was a large one, and afforded rooms for the Bureau of Public Comfort in the lower story, where were telegraph [...]

By |2024-09-28T03:40:30-05:00September 28th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Autumn on the Wooded Island in Jackson Park

"An Autumn Scene on Wooded Island" [Image from the Chicago Inter Ocean Sep. 30, 1893; digitally colored.] “Once a barren strip of sand protesting against the surrounding marshes,” the Wooded Island emerged “like a magnificent Turkish rug, rich with varied dyes, flung down upon a crystal floor,” wrote Shepp’s World’s Fair Photographed. “A profusion of flowers of every shade and hue gems the sod; groves of trees and masses of shrubbery lend further charm by the dark green [...]

By |2024-09-22T10:19:33-05:00September 22nd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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167. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Kentucky Building

THE KENTUCKY BUILDING.—The Kentucky Building was adjacent to that of Missouri, near the northwest corner of the grounds, and was a pleasing structure in the Colonial style. It was seventy-five by ninety feet in dimensions, with fine porches supported by Corinthian pillars. The offices and parlors were large and roomy and the general air one of comfort and hospitality. Inside the building stood a fine statue of Daniel Boone. In the main room of the interior was a large [...]

By |2024-09-09T08:11:25-05:00September 9th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Workers Escaping Death at the 1893 World’s Fair

The excerpt below, from The Chicago Record’s History of the World’s Fair, reminds us of the dangerous work that thousands of laborers (mostly immigrants) faced as they built the White City of 1893. The Medical Bureau of the Columbian Exposition officially reported only thirty-two deaths during construction of the fairgrounds. Luckily, the workers mentioned below escaped that fate. [Note: Although the article mentions the first accident happening at the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, the location likely was the [...]

By |2024-08-21T15:43:39-05:00September 2nd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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The Chicago Fair of 1893 Will Remain Unexcelled

In the aftermath of World War II—facing staggering military casualties, the atrocities of the Holocaust, and the specter of nuclear weapons—some people sought solace in fond memories of better times. The following reminiscence of visiting the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago as a young boy appeared in the July 6, 1946, issue of the Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario). The author had grown up in the small town of Morenci, Michigan. The "electric bulbs which outlined the dome [...]

By |2024-08-23T14:22:10-05:00August 24th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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A City of Realized Dreams

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition showcased harmony of architectural design and sculpture, advanced technologies to serve humanity, and education to guide moral progress. These themes are featured in the essay reprinted here, from the July 1893 issue of Catholic World. This depiction of the “East Lagoon by Moonlight” typified the dreamy quality of “the great white ephemeral city.” [Image from Picturesque World’s Fair. W.B. Conkey, 1894; digitally edited.] A CITY OF REALIZED DREAMS Wandering through the spacious [...]

By |2024-08-14T15:43:05-05:00August 15th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|0 Comments
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